Revelation

Pros

Broad range of options for ticket forms.
Complete and thorough help system

Cons

Pricing quite a bit higher than other products.
Forms and page navigation cumbersome for some operations

Bottom Line

Revelation helpdesk's search, filtering, and reporting capabilities will appeal to companies with relatively large support operations but its price will send some customers elsewhere.

July 15, 2017

Revelation helpdesk (which begins at $19 per user per month at the Select tier) does a decent job of bringing the look and feel of a traditional desktop client application to the web. While the user interface (UI) doesn't have the smooth, responsive feel of some of the other helpdesk products in this review roundup (though it does have enterprise-grade features that make it comparable to our Editors' Choice winner Vivantio Pro), it lags the rest of the enterprise-oriented service desk packages a bit, especially those with a wide variety of third-party integrations, though it does offer more customer-facing features such as social media) ticket management and a mobile app.

Setup and Administration

Creating a new Revelation helpdesk website works much the same way as the other products, with an initial signup form followed by an email for confirmation. The initial minimal configuration required consists of creating a support category or project, named support staff, and users. The trial version I tested included defaults for all of these items plus 10 open tickets. Color coding for new, current, and late items helps quickly identify the issues needing immediate attention.

The help files for Revelation helpdesk are much more extensive than any of the other products I examined. That's due in part to the depth of the product and the number of options available for configuring different aspects of its operations. One example is the email action template capability. This feature makes it possible to build a form that a user would fill out and submit for help.

Queues can be used to distribute work to different groups, such as general IT support or application support. If a new ticket involves a supported app, the ticket can be automatically routed to the appropriate support group based on that information. Microsoft Active Directory (AD) integration currently exists only in the on-premises server edition but is on the roadmap for a future release.

Ticket Management

Revelation helpdesk provides a Ticket Manager section enabling administrators to view the status of all tickets currently in the works. The data-entry screen for helpdesk technicians to enter a new ticket is easy to navigate and provides a nice view to the problem's detailed information. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk and some fields will accept defaults such as Role and Time. The system will not allow a new ticket to be logged until all mandatory fields have been completed.

A dynamic filter capability makes it more manageable for handling large numbers of outstanding tickets by selecting specific projects to display. The left-hand pane provides a number of sections to display pertinent information and make navigation simpler. I found this page to be a little too busy and it could be potentially overwhelming, especially to a new customer service agent. At the same time, an experienced user could benefit by developing usage patterns that would make them much more efficient.

Self-Service and Reporting

All customer self-service features are turned off by default. The Client Manager screen allows you to pick and choose features to make accessible to either the Administrators or All Users groups. These options will then be available to any named user when they access the website. Revelation helpdesk also includes an email parser capable of picking key information and automatically creating a new support ticket. This feature is not enabled by default and is not present in the trial core offering.

Revelation helpdesk incorporates an extensive reporting tool reminiscent of something you would find in an older database management system. A long list of predefined reports provides all of the common information you'd expect to find. Most conveniently, frequently used searches can be saved for later easy access.

A custom tab offers the ability to create your own report based on a set of criteria completed by the user. Building a new report consists of dragging elements from a list of available fields to a blank report form. Once you have the fields a preview option shows what the report will look like should you decide to save it. It's also possible to export the report to either Microsoft Excel or PDF.

Integration

If your company relies on Microsoft Outlook for email, Revelation helpdesk offers a convenient Outlook Bridge making it possible to log new tickets directly from your inbox. This does require a local installation of the Revelation server version 4.0 or higher, and clients must be running at least Outlook 2003.

Additional integration points consist of the ability to import Clients, Offices, End Users, Support Staff, and Assets from flat files or a connected database with a wide variety of supported file types. A sample Excel import file shows the different fields for each type of import to include things such as location information for offices, first and last name, username, role, and email for support staff. While YellowFish Software does not offer mobile apps for different devices, it does have a mobile version of its website suitable for viewing on most portable web browsers.

Finally, for serious integration needs, YellowFish also provides a REST application programming interface (REST API) for Revelation, just like Cayzu, Mojo, and several other helpdesk packages reviewed in this review roundup. That means companies with more expansive integration needs, such as connecting several software packages for advanced workflow engineering, can build their own inter-app connectors. This requires in-house development talent, but it's well worth it if your customization or integration needs are critical to your helpdesk's success.

Pricing

Revelation helpdesk uses multiple pricing tiers that get progressively less expensive per customer service agent as you add more users. The company has recently revamped these tiers starting with a free tier for up to three licenses that includes basic features, like search, email alerts, a knowledgebase, ticket management, and reporting. Then there's a Select tier lower tier for $19 per license per month that adds asset management, custom fields, team mangement, workflow, and more. This is followed by the Prime tier, which runds $39 per user per month and has everything from the previous tiers and adds Chat, custom dashboards, a self-service interface, among other features. The Prime tier has a 14-day free evaluation trial, too. Finally, there's the $59 per user per month Gameplan tier, which represents the high-end of Revelation with features like advanced reporting graphics, project-defined workstreams, and more. These prices represent a basic number of licenses per tier, so be sure to discuss your specific user numbers with your Revelation rep before comitting.

Revelation helpdesk is one the more complex products of this roundup. At the same time, it boasts a number of features that, when used frequently, could definitely increase the typical customer service agent's productivity. However, it has a little way to go before it balances the cloud service paradigm with an enterprise-oriented feature set enough to grab our Editors' Choice.